Teenagers and homework

[Notnowcato]

This is a daft question. My DC are under secondary school age (currently 10, 8 and 4) but we are moving house and I am trying to think forward to how we might be using the rooms in our new house.

At the moment, homework is done around the table in the kitchen as it is not work they can do on their own.

Do secondary school children use computers a lot for homework? For research? For writing? For everything? Not at all?

I would like to resist having computers in bedrooms for as long as is humanly possible. Is it at all likely that I could get away with one laptop to share, which is kept in the (soon to be) large kitchen-diner (and used by me for internet shopping when they don't need it)?

I know it is impossible to generalise, but what would those of you with experience advise as a good set up? We will have a nice big kitchen/diner and a separate tv/living room. Each child will have his/her own room. What do you find works best to encourage sensible studying. (Or does that phrase not really fit with your average teenager )

Many thanks from this innocent for your help.

My ds is 13 and rarely has to type anything for homework - this was much more of a primary school thing.

He occasionally has to research things, and sometimes this means printing off pictures ie examples of chocolate bar designs. You'd get away with one laptop and one tablet/iPad I'd expect for this.

Most homework is written straight in his books. Sometime he has to do online maths exercises, but again this could be done on a laptop or tablet. Actually, most of his maths revision is done this way.

I'm not sure that's of any help! I suspect a mix of dining room table, quiet downstairs space to use Internet, and suitable space in their bedrooms would cover all bases.

Well, we're just that stage slightly ahead of you, with DSs aged 13 and nearly 11 and we have had the same set up as you describe for the last couple of years. Only now, as DS1 is getting to the end of Year8 is it beginning to 'not work'. He has much more homework, and really needs the laptop, but DS2 also needs it a bit, and also wants to use for other things too, like searching Lego/ books/ watching film clips on YouTube etc.

DS1 is going to get his own laptop for Year 9, but we would still ideally like it kept out of the bedroom when he has finished homework. That will be easier said than done though. We have heavy duty parental firewall settings on the wifi though... so much so, that if I seach 'uni sex' sports shorts it is blocked and I can't google holidays in Sus sex!

I have a DD in Y9 and a DS in Y7. At primary, they used to do their homework at the kitchen table.
IME Y7 - homework done downstairs on PC/at table/on sofa
Y8 - move to do more up in room on laptop
Y9 - all done in room on laptop

Do secondary school children use computers a lot for homework?Yes For research? Yes - mine don't bring text books home at all
For writing? Yes - essays/Powerpoints/posters/My Maths, etc
For everything? Not everything - sometimes worksheets to be filled in by hand, but mostly everything!

DD manages her time/quality of homework very well, but I suspect DS will continue to need more guidance/checking up!

Thank you for all your advice. Really helpful. The kitchen diner space should be big enough to have a long table so we can eat at one end and do homework etc at the other. I will aim for that set up, with laptop kept in kitchen for as long as possible. Extra tablet very good idea too.

Quandry: love the image of not being able to book holidays in Sussex online!!

Thanks again everyone.

Mine are 15 and 17.
Up until year 9 they had no computers in the bedroom.
We have a room set aside as a study with a pc and laptop where they could have computer access but homework was done on the kitchen table.
As GCSEs loomed they got a proper desk and pc in their room. Essential I think. DS1 now mid A levels and does a huge amount on computer.

Like SecretS we have a room set aside with desks and PC. Still only small proportion of their work involvrs computer.
Older children (17, 16 & 13) prefer to do homework somewhere quiet, so use the computer room/study, our their (shared) bedroom.
Youngest still does homework at kitchen table - like the others did at primary school.

We could have a small, separate room for everyone to use as a study ? my feeling was that maybe that wouldn't be used. But, Secretscwirrels, if it works for you then I should rethink that.

Both my husband and I work from home (he is an academic, I freelance) so I had earmarked that as a soley adult space. But with a bit of rethinking - and some strict rules - it could be a ? LIBRARY (I'm hearing a Lady Bracknell 'in a handbaaaag?' voice here; sounds a bit grand for us!) for everyone to use.

If we had a laptop for the children that would make sure they didn't muck up my computer (am v. protective about my computer - sad) and they could bring it into the kitchen ?

secret, do your DC sit at their desks? Mine both have desks but sit on the floor/bed/chair

I like that our PC is in the downstairs room - I can keep an eye on DS a bit (though he has internet on his phone) for the time being!

DC do their homework in their rooms, sometimes borrow my laptop or use the desktop PC.

bigTillyMint yes they both sit at their desks. I got these. They also have horrendous pc speakers for playing music and some drawers for school books etc under the desk.
The study is still used by DH and me also houses the router and printer. Having their own has reduced the queuing and I can go on MN when I like .

Mine are y7 and y8. I dropped supervision of homework when they started secondary school and allowed them to do it in their rooms. But neither of them were doing homework and started getting regular detentions. My y8 boy was also using the Internet in his room to watch porn.

So we have had to go back to them both sitting at the kitchen table for half hour every tea time. If they have homework they do it while I'm getting dinner ready, if they don't have homework they help me with dinner.

They need to use the computer / Internet for about 30-50% of their homework.

We bought our daughter a desk for her bedroom she never uses it, she still prefers to be sat at the dining room table or on settee. I would say 80% of her homework is done on the laptop and she sends everything into school from it. Her French and Spanish is written and follows a book and obviously anything art/creative wise is done on the table.

Some of them will just do 30 mins a night, whereas my daughter and her friend are very thorough with whats set and choose to spend a couple of hours or so each night as well as at weekends, so do think how much time things like the main table would be available to use.

I think it depends on the school really.

My DCs are 15 and 14 but in year 7 all their homework was uploaded by the teachers to an online system, I think it's called MLE and they would check that and complete the homework. Sometimes it was a link to another website to complete set tasks, sometimes it was a power point they had to do or research.

So they had to have Internet access at the same time IYSWIM.
We have a desktop computer but it was easier for them to have a laptop each so they can save their work, go back to it another time, keep track of what they were doing.

But homework is done as soon as they get in and the laptops stayed downstairs.

OK, so a really helpful picture is emerging. Key points seem to be:

• a laptop each at some stage, but probably not until higher up the school
• schools vary about how much computer is used for homework
• child's character may determine how much parental supervision needed and whether want/need to do work in main living area but probably wise to assume some will be done there
• some of this work may be protracted so need to have space set aside for this use
• wise to keep computers in well-used areas of home
• good idea to get them into routine for doing homework as soon as they get in.

Brilliant! So helpful.

I think I may keep our planned small study as my main work room, but keep printer and router in there (thank you Secretscwirrels). I will aim to get a laptop for DD and DS1 to use in main kitchen/dining/living area but make sure there is a desk set aside for this and other homework (and for me to use for MN when they are not in ). (At our primary school, homework is really minimal so DS1 won't need to use laptop for another three years: hopefully not too much fighting!)(At least, not about that.)

We are going to be doing a fair bit of knocking down walls and adding a small side extension to the house so, on the basis of this, I think I may make the adult study slightly smaller, and give a bit more room to the main living space, so we can have an alcove for a desk there with shelving. (To store laptops and books even if not to actually work on.)

Thanks so much. Any further suggestions? (This is what I love about MN: parenting is such a prolonged learning curve but with advice from people already around the next bend [to strain a metaphor] you get a brilliant view of what's coming up!)

DD1 does h/w in bedroom, we put in a desk. Around about half h/w is done on a computer.

She has a laptop in bedroom for school use BUT this is massively locked down wrt security with social networking sites, games etc all blocked. It also comes out of her room over school holidays.
She has access to a shared laptop downstairs in evenings for facebook etc.

I didn't want her doing h/W downstairs as DD2 is only 8 and not fair to make her be quiet etc to not disturb her. If DD1's H/W needs lots of help from me (e.g. maths), I may get her to come downstairs so I can cook whilst helping!

I also wanted H/W upstairs from start secondary so she is used to working in her room when load gets heavier and lots of revision is needed for GCSEs.

Let your teen be the one to come up with his daily routine. They are more apt to stick with it this way. Set up a consequence if they are unable to stick to the routine, beforehand.

Pick one evening every week (Sundays are ideal) to preview the upcoming workload. Take time to help your child break down large assignments into smaller tasks.

I think it's important that they develop the self-management skills, if at all possible. I've told DS (now y8) that until the end of y9 my main goal for him academically is to learn to organise himself (work in progress).

katei25 and lljkk: really good points.

I like the idea of previewing the upcoming workload with them: actually, I like the idea of doing that for myself!!

And yes, learning to organise themselves, good point ? something that my DD does need to practise.

I agree it depends on the school. I have a ds (now in 6th form) at one school and a dd (in Yr9) at another.
She only occasionally needs a computer for research - most stuff has to be handed in handwritten in books, but his school had a lot of homework that was on their intranet type thingee (you might spot I'm not that technical ).
Once into GCSE years, then a lot more becomes typed / word processed.

However, they do all like to have their own music, etc., and their own stuff spread out around them - I can't see how you are going to eat / get the meal ready if they've got their work all spread around ? and who gets to choose the playlist ?